A call center is typically thought of a department used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of communications, such as telephone calls. For instance, many companies will provide call centers so that customers may contact the centers in order to receive support for products sold by the companies. Oftentimes, a call center involves the use of a plurality of agents who handle the communications. However, a major problem encountered in many call centers is agents become “burned out.” That is, many times, agents become to feel as though they have nothing left or any energy left to give to their jobs or to the company they work for. Such feelings often lead to high turnover rates for agents. Experts have pointed out contributing factors that lead to agent burnout include lack of motivation and becoming uninterested in performing the same tasks day-after-day.
To combat such factors, some employers have added elements to an agent's workday to engage the agent in his daily tasks and to, hopefully, boost agent retention. For instance, one technique employed to add such elements to an agent's workday is to incorporate gaming techniques into non-gaming applications to encourage participation. For example, a counter may be incorporated into an agent's work screen that keeps track of the number of calls the agent brings to a resolution. The screen may also display the particular agent's record for a day and/or the overall record for a day for all agents. As a result, the counter gives the agent a goal to strive for during the day, keeps the agent engaged in his daily activities, and promotes desired behavior.
However, a problem often encountered in providing elements into an agent's work screen, like the counter described above, is that such elements typically only keep the agent engaged for a limited period of time before the agent becomes disinterested in the elements. That is, many times, such elements are considered simple and repetitive, and do not require any direct interaction with the agent. In addition, with respect to the counter example described above, the agent is likely to set a record that becomes too hard to challenge on a daily basis and thus, the agent feels like beating his record is highly unlikely and, again, the agent becomes disinterested.
Thus, a need in the art exists for a process in which a variety of such elements may be developed, installed, scheduled, managed, and reported for agents' everyday work activities. Further, a need in the art exists for implementing elements that involve direct interaction with agents. Furthermore, a need in the art exists for a process that provides a variety of incentives that may be tied to these elements to further motivate agents. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented.